Lady s hoop-skirt



S. BBBERDY. HOOP SKIRT.

No. 21,479. PATENTED SEPT. 14, 1858.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

SAMUEL BEBERDY, O1 PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

LADYS HOOP-SKIRT.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL BEBERDY, of the city and county of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Ladies Skirts; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming a part of this specification, in which a perspective view of a ladys skirt constructed with my improvement is exhibited.

The nature of my invention consists in constructing the expanding stay or support of ladies skirts of one continuous rod or strip of flexible material which is bent and arranged spirally on the fabric constituting the skirt or interwoven in a spiral form with the same, as shown in the accompanying drawing, the spirals of the stay being of gradually decreasing diameter from the bottom to the top of the skirt, as shown. By thus constructing the expanding stays or supports of ladies skirts a considerable reduction in the first cost of manufacturing the same is effected, as the slides which are used for fastening the meeting ends of the hoop or circle stay are dispensed with and the labor and time of applying said slides and fastening the ends of the hoops are saved. It is also found in practice that considerable saving in material as well as time in manufacturing the stays is effected, as a complete skirt having a given number of spirals can be produced from a shorter strip than a stay formed of the same number of concentric circles or hoops, no overlapping being necessary. It is likewise found that to manufacture skirts with a continuous spiral stay requires less labor and time both in the preparation of the stays and the arrangement of the same on the skirt fabric, as a less number of pieces have to be handled and adjusted, and in addition to the foregoing items, which are by no means of slight importance, when we consider the fact that hundreds of dozens of skirts are made in some large factories per day, skirts made after my invention are more useful than those made on the ordinary plan: 1st, because they are stayed completely from top to bottom, just as perfectly as if perpendicu- Specification of Letters Patent No. 21,479, dated September 14, 1858.

1 lar stays extended from top to bottom of l the fabric now used; 2nd, because when a lady sits down if one of the spirals of the stay is collapsed all the others are mutually affected and one becomes a support for the other, and consequently while in the act of sitting down every part of the skirt yields at the same time or winds spirally around the body in a manner to contract the diameter of the spirals and elongate the skirt, and thus allow the wearer to sit comfortably and with a consciousness that her dress presents a rounding or symmetrical appearance on all sides, and as all parts of the skirt yield together at the same time in sitting down all necessarily regain their original and graceful appearance on again rising; whereas it is found that when a series of separate hoops constitutes the stay it is difficult for a lady to sit comfortably or have her dress present a graceful appearance, as one hoop yields or bends independently of another, and bulges out laterally from the body and gives a distorted appearance to a ladys dress, and owing to the hoops being capable of yielding separately they have no mutual support from each other and consequently when a lady sits down, very often one or more of the hoops are collapsed to such an extent that it becomes necessary on her part, in order to give her dress its original symmetrical set, to use her hands and adjustthe hoops of her skirt.

The spiral stay B, is to be made of an unbroken or continuous spring formed of one piece or by splicing a series of pieces together and wound from the bottom to the top of the body of the skirt continuously; the continuous spring may thus be extended from the bottom of the waist band or if, preferred, additional hoops may be added as a bustle in any of the well known modes to the top of the continuous stay, as shown in the drawing. The stay may be either of elastic wood, whalebone, gutta percha, india rubber or metal and the skirt fabric A, may be woven or made in one piece or of a series of pieces, or of narrow strips, in fact after any of the styles which may be in fashion.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination of a spiral stay B, with the fabric Which constitutes a ladys skirt, in ladies skirts signed by me this 18th day when said stay is formed by Winding a flexiof August, 1858.

ble strip or rod, made of one piece or of a his series of pieces spliced or united together, SAMUEL X BEBERDY.

continuously around the skirt from the botmark tom to the top of the body of the same, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

The above specification of my improvement Witnesses:

Gr. YORKE AT LEE, R. WV. FENWIoK. 

